Enhancing Mentorship with Podcasting:
Training and Retaining New and Beginning Teachers
Sheila F. Pirkle
Barbara R. Peterson
Austin Peay State University
With high hopes and a sense of purpose, John Jeffords, a new teacher with two weeks training in a summer workshop for alternate-licensure candidates, began teaching high school algebra in the fall of 2007in a large urban school. Characteristic of high-population urban schools, more than 50% of the teachers in this school were, like John, new to the profession. Most of the faculty had been employed in this school for three years or less. The classes are large, many students are classified as ‘special needs’ and mainstreamed in regular classes. By December, John seriously considered quitting, after having been assaulted by a student. He was re-assigned to another class but by April quit this position. Unfortunately, this example is not rare.
Introduction
Recent analysis of the rate of new teacher attrition is stunning. The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data collected in 2003 reported that thirty percent of new teachers left the profession by the end of their third year (Ingersoll, 2003; Halford, 1999). As staggering as that information is, closer examination reveals that in urban schools, the attrition rate for new teachers is more than fifty percent by their third year (Henke, Zahn, & Carroll, 2001). So for students in urban schools, more than half the teachers are new to the school, and likely to be inexperienced. In an attempt to reduce this trend, new teacher induction programs have been tried in a number of states and districts. They show promise but are costly and labor intensive. This paper proposes a more cost-effective and easy to implement model of new teacher induction aimed at enhancing new teacher learning and resulting in improved new teacher retention.
Rationale
New teachers are the only professionals who are expected to perform as experts in the classroom from day one. This is not easy to do, even in the most familiar and supportive of teaching environments (Kardos & Johnson, 2007). Most new teachers possess a great deal of declarative pedagogical knowledge, knowledge about teaching. They possess very limited procedural pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of teaching, which only comes with reflective practice.
Induction into a profession can be accelerated through mentorship by a competent and caring individual. Under the broad heading of mentorship come a number of activities, including, but not limited to, responding to concerns, providing information, evaluating and providing feedback on the novices’ performance, and delivering resources. Teachers are encouraged to think daily about the problems they encountered and brainstorm solutions to issues that arose, coming up with ways to alter instructional approaches to meet uncovered student needs: this is reflective practice. For those new teachers assigned a mentor, these reflections are delivered to the mentor, who asks questions, scaffolds the discussion and assists the new teacher to solve the problems encountered. In a recent study, Giza (2008) found that teachers’ reflections were longer and more complex when they made podcasts of their reflections rather than writing them. In an unpublished report, this phenomenon was also observed on pre-service teachers’ reflections recorded in a blog as compared with their reflections recorded in a journal.
This discourse with grade-level or subject specialists is seen as one key to success for the new teacher. Another key to success is continuing education. Continuing education seminars for new teachers provide more intensive learning opportunities advancing new teachers’ capacity to meet student needs. A third key to success comes from constructive feedback given after observation of the new teachers’ classroom instruction.
School districts face the challenge of identifying qualified mentors and freeing them of their own teaching responsibilities in order to cultivate the new teacher. Release time is also an issue. How can these supports be provided more efficiently and economically? This proposal for an E-Induction Program, through blogging and podcasting, describes integration of internet resources into the new teacher induction program, reducing the time constraints and increasing the supports for new teachers.
What follows is a description of the theoretical framework for the proposed new teacher E-Induction Program, a brief history of new teacher induction programs, and a more detailed description of the proposed E-Induction Program (EIP).
How Practical Knowledge Advances: Research and Theory
The E-Induction Program is grounded in information processing theory and constructivist philosophy. Problem solving is central to successful teaching. Studies that analyze why new teachers leave report that their sense of isolation is overwhelming. Isolation breeds self-doubt and confusion, poor environments for successful problem solving. Studies that analyze programs aiding new teacher retention indicate that new teachers respond best to pedagogical support systems that include a variety of networking opportunities as well as continuing education (Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004). Isolation is overcome by the pedagogical support network. This make sense when one considers the philosophical and cognitive frameworks into which these pedagogical supports fit, constructivism, situated cognition and knowledge-building communities.
Constructivism is the philosophical approach that undergirds modern belief that learners build understanding for themselves through relating new experiences to what they already know. New teachers are learners. They complete their formal studies and know a great deal about teaching, but new teachers lack pedagogical procedural knowledge. They will build this procedural knowledge through reflective practice.
The situated cognition view is a modification of the cognitive information processing view of teaching and learning. These are constructs arising out of the computer programming domain and familiar to science, mathematics, and technology educators. Dabbagh (2005) likened cognitive information processing to “mind as a computer,” and situated cognition to “mind as a rhizome.” The “mind as a rhizome” metaphor suggests that the mind grows in the direction of available information, like the grass rhizome grows in the direction of available light, water, and space to develop. As the grass rhizome grows beyond the parent plant, acquired knowledge extends beyond the individual to the community of learners. According to this theory, the cognitive process seeks out a favorable environment, including artifacts, social interactions, and culture (Dabbagh, p. 28). New teachers’ cognitive state is analogous to the “mind as rhizome,” seeking to grow in knowledge though interaction with the informational environment and community of more experienced professionals. Reflective discourse within a community of learners advances knowledge.
Knowledge building community is a construct emerging from contemporary constructivist philosophers who see the connection between the individual’s quest to build knowledge from personal experience to the building of knowledge through discourse within and among members of a community of learners. “The idea is to acquire useful knowledge through understanding of how knowledge is used by a group of practitioners or members of a community” (Dabbagh, p. 28; Scardamelia & Bereiter, 2006). In this view, new teachers, their mentors and support staff are co-learners seeking to advance pedagogical understanding and knowledge acquisition. Intentionally and frequently sharing (Heidkamp & Shapiro, 1999) and advancing pedagogical knowledge is the goal of the community.
New Teacher Induction: Past and Present Models
Over the past twenty years, numerous studies have been conducted on a variety of different types of induction programs in education. While specific components of each program vary widely (Ingersoll & Kralick, 2004), the goal is to increase the confidence and effectiveness of teachers.
Historically, mentoring is encouraged, or provided, in many professions and some human resource professionals are viewing mentoring as a fresh approach (Knouse, 2001; Kirk & Olinger, 2003). The medical profession, for example, provides focused induction through residency programs where new interns work side by side with veteran professionals for several years before beginning independent careers. The cost of losing highly trained professionals is a consideration as professional communities provide supports for new members.
It is not surprising that the teaching profession has been characterized as a career with high levels of attrition especially among beginners. The teaching profession has not had the kinds of sustained and structured induction processes common to many other professions. An analysis in (Ingersoll, 2001) has shown that a large number of teachers are leaving long before retirement. In response to teacher attrition a growing number of states and school districts have developed and implemented structured induction programs. The programs lack a common plan, but they all contain some or all of the following elements:
- Sustained focused support by trained mentors with successful relevant experiences;
- Release time for the new teachers and the assigned mentors;
- Reduced teaching loads for the new teachers;
- On-going professional education seminars;
- Reflective journals and responses from mentors;
- Teaching observation, evaluation and feedback; and,
- Teacher aides in the classroom.
The programs are expensive; California’s new teacher induction program costs about $5,000 per new teacher (Halford, p. 5). Ingersoll and Kralick reported in 2004 that only 1% of new teachers participated in a full induction program like this (p. 13). They said in their report that, while it is difficult to generalize because the programs are so different from each other, that the single most important induction activity, reducing new teacher turnover by 44%, was the participation in an externally provided network for discourse (p. 13). The proposed new teacher E-Induction Program described below will provide that supportive network.
New Teachers and Mentors as Knowledge-Building Communities
For teachers and their students, schools are places of learning. Students develop their understanding of the way the world works, how to solve problems, and how to function as productive citizens. Teachers, likewise, develop their understanding of and improve their pedagogical approaches, and learn to solve classroom problems.
“Knowledge about” teaching increases with experience and with timely discourse among those who are part of the learning community: the teachers, the assigned mentor (the subject or grade-level specialists), the students, the administration and all those engaged in the community. The assigned mentor and all others involved in discourse with the new teacher approach learning about teaching from different viewpoints and sets of experiences, and share their perspectives. The dynamic quality of this discourse requires new thinking and perpetuates new knowledge. Everyone who participates owns the knowledge and thus benefits from the relationship.
Teaching involves instantaneous problem solving as unscripted events occur between students and teachers. The new teachers, when challenged by students, can experience self-doubt and welcomes professional feedback. Having one’s teaching performance observed and evaluated returns dividends. The difficulty is that, to be truly available to the new teachers, the mentors need release time, and few schools can afford to give them adequate time to build this discourse. The E-Induction Program proposes to remedy the situation through podcasting and blogging, removing time as an obstacle.
The Model for E-Learning: The Situated Cognition View
The situated cognition view involves the concept that knowledge is acquired through “mediated forms of interactions and enculturation into a community of practice” (Dabbagh, p. 29). This model builds on the finding that new teachers benefit most from external discourse systems such as the reflective discourse that occurs with E-mentors.
E-learning employs internet resources to provide reflective discussions in an expanded community of learners. With E-learning as a model, the E-Induction Program provides an internet platform for a new teachers’ knowledge building community.
Through blogging and podcasting, the global reach of the internet gives the mentors opportunity to link new teachers with subject and grade-level specialists, with other new teachers, and with professional society members. The links can be real time or asynchronous, at the new teachers’ choosing.
- Structured, scaffolded, or spontaneous discourse is possible and suggestions made among members of reflective practice discussion groups (Lai & Calandra, 2007).
- Teachers can record their teaching performances and deliver recordings as podcasts and ask for feedback from E-mentors.
- Professional development seminars can be designed to fit the needs uncovered in the patterns of discourse. The seminars can be delivered electronically in real time or asynchronously, at the new teachers’ choosing.
The feedback provided by the discussants in the blog provides the new teachers either with the sense they are “on the right track” or with fresh ideas to try, and encouragement to keep at it rather than giving up.
With the knowledge acquired by the community of discussants in the blogs and podcasts, pedagogical knowledge advances to new levels.
New Model of Induction: The E-Induction Program (EIP)
E-mentoring becomes the central support system in the new model. It involves use of podcasting seminars, videos of new teachers’ performance, and blogging written reflections with a potentially large community of teachers from the same field.
The proposed E-Induction Program will also provide a combination of face-to-face supports for new teachers along with E-mentoring.
The required face-to-face supports, provided on-site, include:
- Induction seminars prior to the opening of school;
- Informal meetings with staff, teachers and administration; and,
- Sharing of information about the resources the school and community offer.
The required new e-mentoring program will include:
- Daily reflective practice blogs;
- Assignment of qualified on-line mentors matched for subjects and/or grade level;
- Website for limited access podcasts of self-videotaped lessons, seeking formative assessment opportunities (Wood, 1999);
- Array of pedagogical seminars podcasted by university faculties, professional societies, or teacher groups (Foyle & Childress, 2008) and available at any time; and
- Participation in podcasted and webcasted services and seminars from professional societies.
Participation will be phased out as new teachers self-determine their “survival” needs are diminishing (Halford, p. 2). However, Claycomb and Hawley (2000) report that teachers need 3 to 7 years to improve their procedural knowledge to the point where they “consistently improve student achievement.” So the expectation should be that EIP will continue to be necessary for long periods in the beginning teachers’ careers.
Included will be a centrally assigned coordinator of services to new teachers, who will provide ongoing evaluation of new teacher feedback on the helpfulness of the E-Induction Program and an assessment of the trends in retention of the new teachers.
Conclusion
An unacceptably high rate of teacher attrition, especially in urban schools with students at high risk for dropping out, needs to be reversed. New teacher induction programs have been developed and tried in an number of districts and states. Analysis of the data indicates the results are generally inconclusive, but there are signs that certain program activities show significant promise. Those activities include the use of mentors from the same subjects or grade levels, the provision of continuing education, and the timely evaluation and feedback to the new teachers.
These activities are difficult for high need districts to provide. They are costly and labor intensive. The E-Induction Program proposed in this paper is one that incorporates supportive external discourse networks for new teachers. E-mentoring is a central activity to the proposed E-Induction program. The E-mentoring includes responsive monitoring of reflections recorded by teachers, provision of podcasted pedagogical seminars that the new teachers can draw from, and resources for the new teachers to record themselves teaching and podcast the video to qualified and supportive E-mentors who will evaluate and provide supportive feedback to the new teachers.
The goal is to reduce the sense of isolation new teachers experience and accelerate their induction into the teaching profession, even in the most challenging of teaching environments. The use of internet resources, blogging and podcasting, should have measurable effect on the advancement of pedagogical knowledge for all involved, not only new teachers.
John Leffords, referred to in the introduction, is a pseudonym for a real person.
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